


Capture the Stars

by JaneSkylark



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 15:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneSkylark/pseuds/JaneSkylark
Summary: AOGG: AU Anne works on an astronomy paper and learns more about herself and Gilbert than any celestial object. One-shot.





	Capture the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!

Anne exhaled the breath she had been holding. It was well past the hour that Marilla and Matthew had gone to bed and she had been careful to not make any noise as she crept through the dark house. Every creak in the floor beneath her feet gave her pause and she had waited silently listening for either of them to awaken. 

Earlier in the day she had imagined what her escape would entail. She thought of grand schemes she would tell Marilla and Matthew if they had caught her but as luck would find her it was all rather easy and slightly boring; she would admit to Diana begrudgingly later. The slight snoring of both of the siblings stayed uninterrupted in rhythm and they were none the wiser as their red headed ward made her way out the back door and stealthily across the lawn. The moon was high in the inky blue sky and it cast a pale path of light that Anne followed around the house and down through the gate.

The early spring air was sweet but heavy with the first touches of flowers waking up from their long slumbers. Anne stopped abruptly as she squinted her eyes. Far off in the distance a small orb of light sat in the middle of the field.  _ Gilbert, _ she thought and sighed dramatically. It would only be him who would have the same thought as her when Miss Stacy gave them their astronomy assignment. What better place to get inspiration than to lay down along the cool grass, beneath the dark sky and feel an essay come out of her. 

Her ego wasn’t so completely out of control that she couldn’t admit that she had dreaded the paper and had wasted day after day putting it off until finally the due date was upon her and left her no choice but to force the essay. She always did her best to excel in all of her subjects but astronomy held no interest for her. Who cared about space and what existed there? No one in her lifetime would ever know and what kind of world could she imagine when there was no way to get there? You can’t feel a star the way you can a rose. Countless civilizations had studied stars and to get them where? 

Nowhere, she thought sullenly as she trudged along the field and closer to her destination. The air was warmer than normal for early spring but still cool enough for her to tighten her sweater around herself. The air smelled delicious though. Night air had a romantic aroma about it that lessened when dawn rose and flowers bloomed releasing their sweet smells for the day. Night air was so much more intoxicating. Night is when forbidden lovers could meet in secret she thought. She felt the pull of a story taking place in her mind and she wanted to stop there and pull out a sheet of paper to start writing but she knew her goal had to be the essay this night so she kept on her trajectory to that spot in the field and the boy who had taken it.

She started to make out the form of Gilbert sitting there on his blanket, more clearly with books strewn about him. He was deep in concentration. She could turn back, find another spot and he would be none the wiser, but no she had her heart set on that spot. Had thought over for the last several days. It was in the middle of the open field with no trees around to obstruct her view. She had imagined spreading her blanket and laying with her arms spread wide and looking into the depths of the heavens until the essay just poured out of her. So no, she wouldn’t let Gilbert Blythe deter her. This was her spot and Gilbert would just have to share it.

She did her best to stay quiet as she approached but it wasn’t long before Gilbert either heard her steps or saw the glow from her lantern as she drew closer. He turned his head in surprise, “Anne!” 

He rose to his feet as papers tumbled from his lap, he ran a hand through his hair shyly and grinned at her. Anne dropped her books on the ground and began unfolding a blanket from her bag. When he realized her intention, he grabbed the other side and they positioned it next to his.

“What are you doing out here so late?” He questioned puzzled as he sat back down and sorted his papers from the jumbled mess, they had landed in.

“Same as you I suspect,” she stated grandly and then nodded her head towards his papers and books. “I needed some inspiration for the paper and felt like what better way to write a paper about the stars than from beneath them.”

“Ah,” he smiled cheekily. “I assumed you would have finished it days ago. You’re not usually one for procrastinating.” He pulled a book and a paper back towards his lap as he began working again. She could see from the corner of her eye that it looked like he was outlining a star chart. 

“Normally I would have it finished but as I said I needed inspiration. Astronomy is so dull, every time I try to start, I end up asleep.” She glanced over at his papers to see where he was at, and if he was so much farther ahead than her but she noticed the charts instead of an essay. “Is that a star chart you’re doing? That wasn’t in the assignment.”

“A star chart and also the moon phases. It’s not in the assignment but I wanted to try making them so I’m adding them to my paper.” 

Anne pondered if she should do a star chart also. It was the last thing she wanted to do but if Gilbert was doing one it seemed only fitting that she should do one as well or maybe two! Yes, she would do two charts and the moon phases...well perhaps she would start with one and see how that went she thought. Her musing was interrupted when she realized Gilbert was still speaking to her. 

“I can’t believe that you find astronomy boring. If I have my own class one day, I’m definitely going to do an astronomy section.”

“Ugh, Please Gil. Don’t put your students through that.”

“You’re wrong, Shirley. There is nothing boring about astronomy.”

Anne ignored him as she got her books and papers settled. They worked in silence and the only noise was the scratching of their writing on paper but Anne wasn’t really writing her paper. She continued to struggle through it just as she had each day she had worked on it. She would start a sentence  _ A star is... _ scratch it out only to begin again. On the other hand, Gilbert seemed to be able to complete pages with the speed of a comet. She glanced over his shoulder  _ Copernicus theorized that the sun was the center of the universe and the planets, including Earth, revolve around it breaking centuries of belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. His work proved groundbreaking. _

She sighed. She was working on a remedial essay at best and Gilbert appeared to be working on a lengthy dissertation. Her and Gilbert could volley well in all subjects and each had their slight advantage, hers in English and his science but neither one of them ever truly eclipsed the other. But here he excelled so far above her. She normally saw him as more of two notes, he studied hard at school and worked hard at home but to see him like this, so happy and light working on something he loved reminded her of herself and what she looked like working on a poem or reciting a play. He was so excited by the essay, smiling and filling page after page. 

He muttered under his breath breaking her thought. She looked back on her own brief essay. She looked around where they sat, and the trees in the distance that were bathed in moonlight. This essay would not conquer her so she began her sentence again to only scratch it out a moment later. She looked up again at Gilbert and found him looking back at her and then eyeing her paper.

“Are you having trouble? What topic did you choose?” 

She placed a hand slightly over the top to obscure his view. “Oh, you know, I have some basic facts down to get me started but I’m still working on my full topic,” she hedged. 

Gilbert smiled knowingly. “Uh huh well, I have some notes on different topics, Anne if you want to use them.”

Anne affronted gave a sharp, “No.” Followed by a softer reply when she saw his hurt expression. “No, I can do this on my own.”

“I know, Anne. You can accomplish anything, always have.” He raised his hand to rub the back of his head as if he was remembering where the dark slate broke ages ago. Anne was remembering as well and her cheeks reddened. “But there’s no harm with help. Besides I owe you. You helped me pick the Byron poem last term when I couldn’t choose one to memorize.”

A breeze swept through lifting his papers distracting him and the wind rustled his hair. Gilbert really had grown up in the last few years. He was long gone from the boy he had been that day years before teasing her over her hair. And it was true, she had helped him pick his poem. Actually, they had both been helping the other one a lot lately as they both prepared for their entrance exam. “Well, I guess I could talk it through with you and that might help me pick a direction,” she relented.

“I knew right away I wanted to talk about Copernicus but I have other topics I considered. What do you like most about astronomy?”

Anne thought about space and how it was dark, cold and boring. There was nothing romantic about it at all. “Honestly? Nothing.”

His lips quirked as he fought back a sigh and shook his head. “I’m speechless. I would think that you would love astronomy.”

“Why does that surprise you?” She interrupted as she shifted and pulled out her own notes albeit brief as they were, there were a few small notes here and there about the definition of an orbital path and the names of stars but along the edges and between the lines were doodles of flowers and scribbled lines of poetry. She put her hand over the page again not wanting Gilbert to see her lack of progress but when she turned, he wasn’t looking at her but at the sky. The lantern cast a warm glow across his face and she could make out the light freckles at his hairline. 

Her breath caught for a moment but she continued, “There’s nothing special about the sky. The sun sets then it rises and in between that there is a night sky with some faraway specks of light. Besides you can’t do anything fun at night because it’s too dark. We can’t go pick flowers, walk along the beach or visit friends. You can’t read for hours without wasting oil. There’s no room for imagination in the dark. None at all.”

Gilbert shook his head and teased, “You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. Night is the best time for imagining impossible things. Night is when your dreams come to life and there isn’t a field of flowers in the world that can compare to the bright stars above us and how endless they are. We studied Volaire. Think about his painting of Vesuvius. What’s in the background?”

She could see the painting clearly in her mind and knew exactly what Gilbert was asking. She sighed before replying, “The moon.”

“Exactly. That moon up there above us right now,” he pointed. “Is the same moon that saw that eruption. Think of all that it has seen. The pyramids, the crusades, Jesus walking on this earth and think what it will see, all that will come after us. They watch over all of us. How can you not be fascinated by them? Look up.”

“What?”

“Right now,” he nodded up and he snatched her pencil and paper from her hands and tossed them to the side. He tossed his as well and reached to turn down his lantern before he stretched out beside her. “Look up at the sky.” He paused and turned to her and raised his brow. 

Sighing she turned her lantern down as well and positioned herself so that she was laying down beside him. This was probably the closest she had ever been to Gilbert and she would be lying if she didn’t feel the intimacy between them now. His faint scent washed over her and she held her breath as her heart quickened.

He waved at the sky over both of their heads. “There aren’t any boundaries in space, Anne. There isn’t an edge of a cliff, no field that meets a road. It is all endless and vast. The sky above is the same sky we were born under, and the same sky we will die under. It will follow us wherever we go, the one constant in our lives. Copernicus, Newton, Kepler, Descartes, Galileo. What they discovered about astronomy is incredible. We’re so far from it but they named stars, built telescopes to see planets and charted orbits all from positions just like ours. All they did was look up,” he paused and his voice softened. “They’re just as important to art as your poets, Anne. The things they discovered are because they dreamed them first and those dreams inspired generations of artists, writers and regular old fools like me. They still do.  _ When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun _ ,” he recited.

“Romeo and Juliet,” she whispered.

“The greatest poets in the world took inspiration from above,” he whispered back. “Stars move always in the same pattern along the same sky but they always come back to their original position. The stars are dancing with each other, Anne. You should talk about that.”

She turned her head to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“You could write about the constellations. Farmers and explorers have used constellations for centuries to plan growing seasons and to help with navigation and you could include the stories that civilizations created behind them. Greek and Roman mythology both have their stories for them. I think you’d really like that and you would be great at it.”

Anne thought about it and it seemed like a good idea, a way to blend something she loved with something she didn’t, telling stories about the stars. Maybe it was possible for her to find common ground with something she didn’t like, no that wasn’t quite right, not something she didn’t like more so something she hadn’t understood before. Before now.

Gilbert continued, “ _ And God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the less light to rule the night and the stars. Genesis. _ ” You’re a March birthday. You should talk about Pisces. We can even see it now but it’s faint.” He pointed up to the sky. “Just there. In Greek mythology the monster Typhon attacked Mount Olympus so Aphrodite and her son transformed into fish and swam away. That’s why people say Pisces is two fish connected by a cord.”

Anne laid on her side while doodling as he spoke and saw she had drawn the constellation he described. She wondered how he remembered her birthday but didn’t ask. “What constellation is yours?”

“The ram.”

“Huh?”

“Aries, the ram. It’s because Greeks thought the stars were in the shape of a ram’s head. The story is that Aries was the ram with golden fleece that was sought by many. But there are a lot of stories and the Greeks stories are sometimes different than what the Romans believed. I have a book here that discusses both that could help and you could talk about the stars that make the different constellations. According to legend Poseidon placed Cassiopeia in the stars upside down because she was too vain…Delphinus the dolphin was first identified by Ptolemy in the 2nd century...Pegasus, a beautiful, white winged horse that came from Medusa’s neck when Perseus beheaded her. Something beautiful born from something ugly.”

As he went on Anne closed her eyes and imagined the stars coming to life as Gilbert recited the stories. Gilbert always praised her acting but he was just as good of a storyteller as she was as he told impassioned tales of the heavens and recited facts about stars and planets. At some point she realized Gilbert had stopped speaking and she hadn’t noticed because she found she had moved and was busy writing having already filled two pages.

“I suppose there is kind of an impossible possibility of it,” she admitted, finally.

“What do you mean?”

“Well something about looking up at it makes me feel both small and large like significant and insignificant at the same time. I can dream the most impossible and possible things but looking up at the depth of space and imagining the stars, planets and so much we can’t fathom makes life seem a bit impossible and possible at the same time.”

“I know what you mean. There are things that at one point in my life felt impossible but they don’t seem that way now.”

She turned to look at him and found him staring back deeply at her. It was too dark but she imagined she could see the small flecks of gold in his brown eyes just like glistening stars in an onyx sky. “I didn’t know you were such a fan of astronomy. I knew you enjoyed our lessons but...”

“I love it, Anne. The mystery around it. There’s so much that we don’t know about space and every year there are new discoveries.” He paused. “I know you haven’t been enjoying our astronomy lessons but you really should give them more of a chance. The stars are to the sky as poetry is to English. Or at least that’s what I think.” He chuckled nervously and ran his hands through his dark curls. “Sometimes I come out here and I can’t believe the magnitude of it. I find it overwhelming.”

“You speak so passionately about it. You’re not thinking about studying astronomy instead of medicine after teaching, are you?” This shift in his focus perplexed her and startled her. They were not close confidants by her own refusal but she still felt very sure in always knowing his trajectory and perhaps even where hers and his paths would intersect at different stages in her life. They both were set on attending Queen’s and she was just as sure that they would find themselves at Redmond but if Gilbert wasn’t studying medicine would he still attend Redmond...with her. Her breath caught for a brief moment at this unknown peculiarity. She raised her hand and rubbed her breastbone as to ease the ache that she suddenly felt rising in her throat.

Gilbert gazed up, longingly at the sky and took a calm breath before he responded, “I won’t lie. The thought intrigues me, immensely but I love medicine too and I still see myself as a doctor. However, I have every intention of taking an astronomy class or two at Redmond. Why not study both if I can?”

“Why not indeed.” She relaxed at his response and struggled with the sudden shift in her emotions but she identified it easily, relief. 

It wouldn’t be wrong for Gilbert to study astronomy but that fact that she might not have known that his plans changed bothered her. Her brain was just in the process of wrapping itself around realizing something so she put her head back down to her paper and they both continued working. 

Rustling in the grass broke her concentration and Gilbert whispered, “Deer.”

“Dear? Me?” She asked slightly panicked.

“Deer in the meadow, just down a way.” He pointed in the distance and she could see several shadows walking against the trees.”

“This late?”

“Definitely. Sometimes I can catch them looking up too.” 

She caught his eye that glittered with teasing. “Gilbert,” Anne laughed and he joined in. Their eyes met and both stopped laughing as they looked at one another before returning to their work but Anne’s pace had been broken and she looked around the clearing again.

“I wish we could catch the stars like fireflies. Put them into glass jars and keep them with us forever.” When she looked over, she found him staring at her and he smiled and ducked his head down so she looked away. 

“The stars shine for just us already, Anne. You especially.”

She blushed but didn’t look back over at him. She could have asked him what he meant but she wasn’t sure this was a subject they should broach, not with him so close to her and not with this now romantic sky enveloping them. She stretched out again and laid her head back on the arms tucked underneath it. 

“May I belong amongst them and shine for others,” she whispered softly.

Neither spoke for a long time after that. Under different circumstances Anne could imagine herself falling asleep like this but not now. Her heart was beating fast in her chest and her mind was racing. 

“Is there really that much left to discover, Gilbert? We know the planets, we know the stars and comets.”

“Anne scientists didn’t even believe in meteorites until the turn of the century! There is so much we don’t know we just don’t know what that is or at least that’s what I believe anyway.”

From beside her Gilbert put his books aside and laid down again as he continued to speak softly, “There could be so much more to discover. More planets and faraway stars. Maybe other celestial bodies outside of planets and moons. Things we can’t quite imagine yet, impossible things, remember. I know there is more out there and more to discover, I can feel it. Maybe one day a man will walk on the moon. I know that’s an incredible thing to imagine.” He reddened at the admission. 

“Or a woman.” He blinked at her confused. “I don’t think it’s a silly thing to imagine but maybe it could be a woman who will walk on the moon.”

“Or a woman,” he repeated agreeing with her. “Either way can you imagine? People not on earth but amongst the stars and the planets.” He shook his head and looked at her shyly. “Probably silly to imagine something impossible like that.”

She had known Gilbert for years and had always known him to be practical, thorough, intelligent and kind but she had never known this side of him, the dreamer side and she stared at him under the bright stars of this unusually warm night and found herself inexplicably drawn to him. She wanted to take his hand as it sketched the stars on his paper and she wanted to sit close to him as he explained more about the inky dark night and constellations held there above them. She found herself leaning closer to him. The scent of spring air, grass and mint came off him in waves and she closed her eyes. How could she have missed this for all of these years. She didn’t notice when the teasing boy became the dreaming man before her. For years she thought any kind of attraction to Gilbert was…” but her thought cut off abruptly and she turned her gaze from him and back to the stars.

“Nothing is impossible, Gilbert. Nothing at all.”

If she leaned over now, and brushed her lips across his that wouldn’t be impossible either and no one would see it, perhaps no one would believe it if he told them. Afterall, the only witnesses would be the stars above them but she held back and pushed her braid across her shoulder, raised her eyes back to the sky and took a deep breath.

She understood now why stars could be dangerous things, why their beauty was both mesmerizing and intoxicating because now under these bright stars, with Gilbert talking about constellations and comets, with his eyes lit up with passion she found herself looking at his lips and wondered desperately what they would feel like against hers. She reddened at the thought and was happy for the darkness lest he would want to know what caused her to blush so and she wasn’t sure she would be able to keep it to herself.

And that’s how they stayed, stretched out along two blankets, side by side, while Gilbert would offer suggestions for topics like how long can a comet travel and how astronomy has been studied even by early civilizations. 

“Did you know Anne that Halley’s comet comes around every 75 years. It won’t appear again until 1910. I don’t know where I’ll be but I’m going to see it.”

“I’m sure you will, Gil. I’d like to see it too.”

His hands waved above their heads as he pointed out constellations and would grab hers so it would trace the outline with his and sometimes Anne would let their fingers entwine and linger wrapped around one another while Gilbert whispered next to her until he would pull in another direction to a different part of the sky and start again.

They both sensed when the hour had grown too late, still hours from dawn but long after they both should have been home in their beds. Marilla and Matthew weren’t even aware she wasn’t sleeping soundly in her room, if they awoke and realized she wasn’t in the house...she knew they would have a difficult time understanding what she had been doing. Gilbert and Anne slowly began their work of straightening up their papers and books that seemed to have become entangled after their work together. Anne’s books were by Gilbert and some of his papers were tucked along hers. Her fingers grazed along his star chart and planet sketches he had done.

She looked down and in the middle of her notes realized she had written  _ romantic nights will lead to friendly days _ . Her fingertips brushed over it and she folded the paper placing it in her book. The heavy, aromatic spring air was wreaking a bit of havoc with her heart she decided and played tricks on her mind. It was good they were leaving she decided as she wasn’t sure how much of the heady air and Gilbert’s warm voice, she could take without becoming a bit reckless.

“Thank you for your help tonight, Gilbert. I know we’ve competed for a long time and you didn’t have to help me but I’m glad that you were out here. I see things more clearly than I did before.”

Gilbert wasn’t looking at her and he remained tucking papers into his books. “You know I’ve wondered before what I would be like if you hadn’t come to Avonlea.”

She turned, startled as she rose. “What do you mean?”

“Sometimes, I think so much of what I’ve accomplished has been because of you.”

“Hardly, Gil. You can’t really believe that.”

“You were like none of the other girls at school. You cared so much about your grades and saw where they could take you. I wasn’t like that when we were younger. I didn’t know I wanted to be a doctor then but I knew you wanted to be first in class and then to compete with you, not against you, it felt so natural.”

“I could say the same about you. If I had come to Avonlea but you hadn’t come back to school, we would have met surely, but maybe I wouldn’t have tried to excel the way that I did either. I did want to best you at every opportunity.”

“Perhaps we’re like two celestial objects, orbiting along the same path, following one another,” Gilbert spoke softly but Anne didn’t respond. She stared at him before breaking their gaze as she turned to start her way back towards Green Gables. She felt Gilbert at her side as she realized that he was in step beside her instead of heading in the opposite direction for his home.

“I have to be honest with you about something, Anne. I had hoped this would happen.”

“Hoped what? That I would finally need your help with a class,” she joked, unsure of what he meant.

He smiled lightly. “No. You don’t make it a secret your dislike of our science work and I knew you weren’t working on the paper.” When Anne lifted a questioning brow he responded, “Diana mentioned it. But I know you and I know how you look for inspiration in all things. I thought it was possible that you might find your way out here one night. I had hoped for it. I wanted to share this with you.” 

They walked along slowly and Anne pulled her books tighter to her chest before she finally responded, “You’ve been out here working on your paper every night while waiting for me?”

Gilbert’s head moved from side to side as he seemed to weigh responding. “My paper has been done since that first night Miss Stacy assigned it. I’ve revised it a few times but it’s finished.”

She didn’t say anything as they walked to the fence outlining the main acre surrounding the house before Gilbert stopped them both and she turned towards him. 

He opened his mouth to speak when something bright caught their sight and they both looked up.

“Is that?”

“Yes! I can’t believe it.”

They both watched mesmerized as the comet flew past and then followed quickly by another and another. It wasn’t long until the sky was lit up with several streaking fast and high over their heads before it was over too quickly.

“Comets, Anne. Can you believe it? We just saw a meteor shower. That was incredible!”

“That was breathtaking," she laughed. "I never imagined it like that! So fast, so bright. It was over so quickly.” 

And that’s how Anne had her first kiss. They didn’t speak and neither moved when Gilbert brushed a loose strand of hair from her braid, tucking it behind her ear. He leaned down, his lips close to her mouth and paused, waiting to see if she pulled back and when she didn’t he placed a soft kiss to her lips. It wasn’t deep but it was sweet and filled with longing and hope. 

It was over too quickly but it belonged to her and it had happened not in a summer field like she had imagined and not with birds trilling in the background but in the deepest part of the night, with no sound at all and only stars as witness within a vast and endless sky.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Pinterest so I always do mood boards for my fics. If you're interested you can find me under JaneSkylark6. I was also inspired by the video for Sleeping At Last - Saturn. I highly recommend it!


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